On February 4, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr won the Senate Finance Committee’s confirmation vote. The Committee voted along party lines (15 to 14) to move Kennedy to the final step of the confirmation process. Next, Kennedy will head to the floor of the U.S. Senate for his final confirmation vote.
Tuesday’s vote comes after a two-day confirmation hearing on January 29 (watch here) and 30 (watch here), during which the topics of conscience rights, drug-induced abortion, and maternity care deserts were heavily discussed. Notably, Kennedy committed to protecting the conscience rights of pro-life medical professionals, stating, “Forcing somebody to participate in a medical procedure as a provider that they believe is murder does not make any sense to me. We need to welcome diversity in this country; we need to respect diversity, and we need to respect each other when we have different opinions and not, you know, not force our opinions on other people.”
Kennedy also committed to “look into” the safety of the abortion drug mifepristone, including improving adverse events reporting. This left pro-life advocates hopeful that he will consider requiring the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to reinstate the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) requirements on this drug that were in place prior to 2016, ending the worst of the recklessly dangerous conditions under which women have been offered this drug for the past several years, including sending them by mail without a prior in-person visit.
Additionally, Kennedy named improving rural Americans’ healthcare access as a priority, confirming under questioning by Senator John Barrasso that he would commit to preventing the closure of rural hospitals, especially maternity wards.
You can read AAPLOG and AAPLOG Action’s commentary on Kennedy’s confirmation hearing on Twitter/X:
- Responding to Senator Ron Wyden’s unqualified assertion that “mifepristone is safe,” which was repeated by several other pro-abortion Senators as an objection to strengthening adverse events reporting for the drug as well as reinstating basic safeguards for it.
- Responding to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s claim that late-term abortion is just “childbirth gone wrong.”
- Reacting to Senator Josh Hawley’s commentary regarding the dangerous practice of mail-order abortion drugs and its impact on pro-life states and their residents.
You can also read Dr. Christina Francis’s op-ed published in The Federalist ahead of the Kennedy confirmation hearing, co-authored with John Mize of Americans United for Life.
Lastly, click here to read a letter we sent to GOP officials ahead of Kennedy’s confirmation hearing encouraging them to question the nominee on his stance regarding late-term abortion and abortion drug safety.
